Community Outreach and Engagement Team
Kimberly Burke
- Assistant Director of Operations
Kimberly Burke holds a BS/MPH in Nutritional Sciences and Environmental Health from the Boston University School of Public Health. Kimberly began her career as a community nutritionist in the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) in Boston, Massachusetts, where she gained experience providing parents and caregivers with nutrition counseling, creating educational materials, and planning educational events. Following this, she worked as an environmental analyst for the Community Assessment Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health where she prepared health consultations on contaminated sites throughout the state and worked on cancer cluster investigations. Her subsequent role as a program coordinator at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health allowed her to work closely with community organizations, key local and national stakeholders, and research participants on community health education initiatives around common urban pollutants. In her current role as operations manager for COE, she coordinates research projects, assists with event planning and together with COE works closely with community partners to tailor education and outreach programs to the needs of diverse communities.
Kazeem Abdul
- Research worker
Kazeem is originally from Ago Iwoye, Nigeria where he studied Liberal Arts and trained at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism as a Public Relations Expert. Since 2002, he has worked diligently with many Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) medical doctors on health research to enlighten New Yorkers across the 5 boroughs about cancer prevention and general health care support. Through his work as a Public Health Research Worker at Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement Office (COE), he has been co-authored in three publications published by the Journal of Community Health, Cancer Prevention Research, and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention. Currently, Kazeem’s aim is to make health care knowledge, specifically cancer and cancer prevention, more accessible to New Yorkers via faith leaders to their congregants by making videos about various health topics in English and his native language, Yoruba, through COE.
Andria Reyes
- Health Education Manager
Andria Reyes has an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Health and Behavior Studies from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. Andria has expertise creating and delivering culturally relevant health promotion and disease prevention materials. For the HICCC, she manages the health education program, delivers a suite of health education workshops in English and Spanish, offers research document translation services to the Columbia community, and offers her research expertise to investigators throughout the cancer center. Andria is also part of the HICCC Tobacco Cessation Program and counsels patients as a Tobacco Treatment Specialist. She is currently working on obtaining the national credential for Tobacco Treatment Specialists.
Mary Beth Terry, PhD
- COE Director
Mary Beth, Professor of Epidemiology, has over 20 years of experience conducting studies examining environmental and lifestyle exposures and how they affect cancer risk. She is committed to training and is very involved in high school and undergraduate training programs for youth in the local communities.
Grace Hillyer, EdD, MPH
- Clinical Trials, Tobacco Cessation
Grace Hillyer is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and health educator in the Mailman School of Public Health. Her expertise lies in the applied use of behavioral theory to conceptualize and investigate multilevel psychological, social, and cultural factors impacting health behavior among underrepresented and underserved populations and the application of mixed research methodology to construct and implement tailored educational interventions.
Karen Schmitt, RN
- Outreach, Screening
Karen Schmitt, MA, RN, Director of the Manhattan Cancer Services Program, is a clinician and health educator whose career of more than 30 years has focused on understanding the health seeking behaviors and beliefs, communication preferences, and educational and cancer needs of the diverse populations within our community to mitigate cancer disparities. Both her community work and research build on a framework to address and overcome the social and cultural barriers to preventive cancer care and has improved the access to cancer screening, diagnostics, and treatment for thousands over the years.
Maya Lipsman
- Research Project Coordinator II, Project Director, Cancer Prevention in Action
Maya Lipsman received her Master of Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in 2019 with a degree in Sociomedical Sciences and a Certificate in Health Communications. As a Research Project Coordinator at COE, she uses her health communication knowledge to create culturally-relevant educational materials for communities that teach them how to reduce their risk of developing cancer. She also works on publicizing cancer prevention workshops to relevant communities and assisting with grant material preparation.
Parisa Tehranifar, DrPH
- Mixed methods research, implementation science
Parisa Tehranifar, DrPH has training and expertise in sociomedical sciences, cancer epidemiology and implementation science. Dr. Tehranifar's research program broadly addresses cancer health disparities and breast cancer screening and prevention.
Nicole Bayne
- Project Manager
Nicole Bayne completed an undergraduate degree in Biology at Berry College, a degree in Nursing at Georgia State University Perimeter College, and she received her Master of Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Nicole has 10 years of clinical experience as an RN, serving in care delivery and leadership roles in the Emory University Hospital system in Atlanta. The desire to expand her ability to address the root causes of health disparities inspired her transition to the field of Public Health. As a Project Manager, Nicole works closely with the HICCC Community Outreach and Engagement Office to ensure local communities have access to chronic disease risk reduction resources and opportunities.
Ivorie A. Farley-Cook, MS
- Community Research Coordinator
Ivorie A. Farley-Cook earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Spelman College and Master of Science degree from Columbia University. In addition to her role as Community Research Coordinator at COE, she serves as Assistant Director of YES in THE HEIGHTS, a research education program that provides summer internships to high school and undergraduate students with the goal of increasing diversity in the biomedical workforce. With social justice and health equity at the foundation of her work, Ivorie looks forward to working with stakeholders, including community members, to continue promoting an equitable distribution of health resources and examining the role of social determinants of health on overall health outcomes.
